We have received a flurry of new membership applications in the last week or so - coincident with the beginning of the new coarse fishing season. All new membership applications received up to today's date (16 June 2025) have been processed and membership cards are being posted out today.
Many thanks,
Richard Bennett
Membership Secretary.
A big thankyou to Andy Davies, Brian Hughes and Keith Hancock for spending Saturday 6th June helping Matt K to clear paths and access points between Rodens car park and the Captains. And a reminder to be careful on steep, wet banks; one of our members has just had an unexpected dip!
We'd like to thank Adam, Andy, Brian and Keith for their help, hard work and company on the last work party.
Despite awful weather forecasts we had a good day and we got a lot of work done.
I hope everybody had a good day and found it beneficial. We certainly reclaimed some nice water.
The next work party will be on Saturday the 7th of June. More information can be found on the website in the Work Parties forum. Please come along if can and remember to make sure you have already filled in the volunteer agreement.
The Pickhill car park has now been repaired with a new gate fitted and is safe to use. The Graig Lane car park is also available.
We have received reliable reports of people coarse fishing our waters during the close season. Our Bailiffs are carrying out regular patrols and will immediately report all offenders to the police and NRW. This can result in a fine of up to £2500 for a single offence. We will also pass names to other angling clubs in the expectation that they will be blacklisted.
Our River Manager, Matt Klimaszewski, enjoyed a well-earned day-off from bank clearance on May 4th and captured our second seatrout of the season as part of a nice mixed catch. Members can see the details on the Catch Returns page.
We all owe a big thankyou to Andy D, Andy V, Rob, Buddy, Adam, Mike and Keith who all turned out on a very hot day to clear banks on 27th April. Our River Manager, Matt, certainly appreciated their help. It was a very successful day, with a lot of water made much more accessible. With such a good turnout we were able to work on 2 beats simultaneously. More work parties will be announced soon, please come along if you can - many hands really do make tight work. Thanks again chaps.
The Welsh Dee Trust are having a litter pick on the Village Beat this Friday morning at 10am (2nd of May). Meeting at the Royal Oak. Our members and the public are welcome to go along and volunteer. It sounds like the WDT do a very thorough job using paddle boards to get to the hard to get areas. If you are free, go along and help and let us know how it goes.
We're pleased to report the first capture of a seatrout this season from one of our beats, albeit a small one. Members can see the details on the Catch Return page.
Buglife (an invertebrate conservation trust) is asking anglers to help their population survey for the Yellow Sally, a critically endangered stonefly. The Wrexham/Bangor area of the Dee is one of the few places this valuable food source for our fish has been identified. Anyone spotting this fly is asked to notify Buglife via this link:
https://www.buglife.org.uk/get-involved/surveys/search-for-the-scarce-yellow-sally/
A couple of BODSAA members have spotted salmon already on our beats this season. No-one from BODSAA has caught yet, but we believe a large springer has recently been caught from another association water on the opposite bank to one of our beats.
This is just a reminder that public consultation on NRW proposals to permanently ban net fishing for salmon and sea trout in the Dee and Clwyd estuaries closes on 12th March. The current temporary ban expires in June this year. We encourage all anglers to support the proposals via the Consultations Section of the NRW Website. It only takes 2 minutes and the more anglers who support the NRW proposal, the more likely a permanent ban becomes. BODSAA members can see a copy of the proposals in our document library.
